From Kleefeld with Love 2

A post from several weeks ago (here) mentioned the book From Kleefeld with Love, edited and translated by John A. Harder (2003). The book presents a series of letters “written by Mennonite women during the onset of Soviet Russia’s most turbulent years, 1925 to 1933.” The book reveals in stark terms what turns the lives of Grandpa and Grandma and their children would have taken, had their forebears remained in Kleefeld and never journeyed to the U.S.

In a letter written decades after Stalin’s first Five-Year Plan (1928–1932) and World War II (1939–1945), Anna (Enns) Harder Klein reflected on the events of those terrible years. I include a portion of the letter in this post, with more to follow in a subsequent post:

Our dear Heimat [home] has been lost to us forever, but our precious memories still remain. Our dear forebears worked diligently to provide a sunny and comfortable home for us. Unfortunately, today our village is in ruins. …
     After studying ten years at the Zentralschule [high school] in Alexanderkrone, I began teaching in Kleefeld, and then for two years in Alexanderkrone. In 1925 I moved to Friedensruh, where I met David Harder. We were married on June 27, 1937. Sadly, our marriage came to an abrupt end four months and three days later on October 30,1937, when he was arrested. He went missing and was never heard from again. Our son David D. was born on June 4, 1938, but he never did get to see his father. Between 1935 and 1938, many men were arrested without cause. Almost all of them were never heard from again. Stalin actually arrested huge numbers. More accurately, he had them killed. After this we had the dreadful war [World War Two] that brought further death to additional thousands upon thousands.
…
[189] My brother Gerhard was sent to the Swerdlovskaja camp Tirdel Ubgest. Here he stayed, along with 18 other men from Kleefeld. All but Gerhard and Jacob Voth, son of Franz Voth, died there of starvation.… The German-speaking men and young boys from the various villages had been herded together like animals being driven for watering at the river. Then they were loaded onto wagons and taken to various camps, 15,000 men in all. Please read what follows carefully. Of these 15,000 only 4,000 were still alive in 1944. It would require a substantial book to adequately record the suffering of our German people in Russia. (Harder 2003, 188–90)

From Kleefeld with Love can be purchased here.

Source

Harder, John A., ed. and trans. 2003. From Kleefeld with Love. Kitchener, Ontario: Pandora Press